Acknowledgements Contributors’ Details Christine Berberich, ‘Introduction: The Popular / Literature versus literature Part I: History I.i.: Christopher Pittard, ‘The Victorian Context: Serialization, Circulation, Genres’ I.ii.: Christine Berberich, ‘Twentieth-Century Popular: History, Theory, and Context’ Part II: Genres II.i.: Maryan Wherry, ‘More than a Love Story: The Complexities Of the Popular Romance’ II.ii.: Alice Ferrebe, ‘“The Lads’ Own Paper”: Male Confessional Literature and the Legacy of Adventure II.iii.: Andy Sawyer, ‘Science Fiction: The Sense of Wonder’ II.iv.: Stefania Ciocia, ‘Rules are Meant to Be Broken: Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Crime Writing’ II.v.: Gina Wisker, ‘Disturbance, Disorder, Destruction, Disease: Horror Fiction Today’ II.vi.: Lena Steveker, ‘Alternative Worlds: Popular Fiction (not only) for Children’ II.vii.: Monica Germanà, ‘The Coming of Age of Graphic Narratives’ Part III: Case Studies III.i.: Ben Clarke, ‘H.G. Wells, Élitism, and Popular Fiction’ III.ii.: Patrick Parrinder, ‘John Buchan and the Spy Thriller’ III.iii.: Juan F. Elices, ‘Manipulating Popularity: A Case Study of Ian Fleming’s James Bond Series III.iv.: Joanne Bishton, ‘Subverting the Romance: the Fiction of Sarah Waters’ III.v.: Bran Nicol, ‘The Hard-Boiled Detective: Dashiell Hammett’ III.vi.: Petra Rau, ‘Violent Pleasures: War as Entertainment’ III.vii.: Neil Campbell, ‘Popular Vampires: The Twilight Effect’ III.viii.: Ben Dew, ‘Rewriting Popular Classics as Popular Fiction: Jane Austen, Zombies, Sex and Vampires’ III.ix.: Carl Tighe, ‘Edu-Biz: The Worlds of Learning and Writing – A Writer’s Perspective’ Christine Berberich, ‘Afterword: The Future of the Popular’ Index
Covering major genres from Crime to Chick-Lit, this is a comprehensive introduction to the study of popular fiction from the 19th-century to today.
Christine Berberich is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Her previous publications include The Image of the English Gentleman in Twentieth Century Literature (2007).
The book as a whole brings a refreshing depth, clarity and academic
rigour to a field that has long been left languishing.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Does exactly what it says on the cover: sold introductions to the
multivariate literary forms in popular literature and reading. Andy
Sawyer on science fiction and Petra Rau on the violent pleasures of
war as entertaining are particularly strong, as are the chapters on
H. G. Wells and the rewriting of Jane Austen for devotees of
vampires, zombies and the erotic
*Times Higher Education*
[With] 18 essays, from a variety of academic authors, [this book]
constitut[es] an excellent vade mecum to popular literature.
*The Sunday Morning Herald*
This cornucopia of exciting essays on popular fiction from the
Victorians to the present, by both veteran scholars and exciting
new voices, boldly takes popular fiction beyond encrusted cliches
and into the ferment of twenty-first century ideas. From Tom
Brown's Schooldays to Twilight, from H. G. Wells; to Stieg Larsson,
The Bloomsbury Introduction to Popular Fiction provides an
accessible, fresh, and above all contemporary look at a part of
literature that, increasingly, we find we cannot do without.
*Nicholas Birns, The New School, New York, USA*
The chapters gathered in this collection provide a comprehensive
and wide-ranging introduction to the field of popular fiction. The
chapters on crime fiction, children’s literature, utopian texts and
science fiction, the spy thriller, horror and gothic literature and
graphic narratives offer a thorough and in-depth overview of the
various genres and their genealogies. Critical approaches to the
genre and its various subgenres engage with contemporary
theoretical discourses in order to show the complex aspects that
have impacted upon the development of popular fiction and its
reception by readers and academia. The volume presents an important
contribution to the study of this literary field and will provide
an informative and valuable tool for the teaching of undergraduate
as well as postgraduate students.
*Angelica Michelis, Senior Lecturer, Department of English,
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK*
This wonderful collection takes popular fiction seriously - at the
same time it celebrates what makes it so much fun to read.
Berberich includes an impressive array of scholars, who
persuasively argue that the traditional distinctions between 'high'
and 'low' culture and literary and popular fiction ignore the ways
in which both forms speak to us about who we are and the society in
which we live. In our increasingly digital world, 'popular' culture
surrounds us, and it will continue to take on new forms of
expression, challenging and reshaping our ideas about what
constitutes art and literature. This collection engages older and
newer forms of the popular and makes an important contribution to
fields of literary and cultural studies, and it is also a truly
pleasurable read.
*Lisa Colletta, Professor of English, The American University of
Rome, Italy*
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